Challenge for children

The vision of a safe and permanent home within one year for every child for whom a county Department of Social Services has legal custody or placement responsibility is an essential element of our mission to ensure that every child in North Carolina has a safe, permanent, nurturing home. To realize this vision, we began issuing the "Challenge for Children" in 1997. It has been reissued annually since; and as a result, we have come closer to realizing our vision. In the Challenge for Children, we ask every county Department of Social Services in North Carolina to make foster care backlog reduction a top priority for its child welfare system. The backlog includes all children who remain in the custody or placement responsibility of a county Department of Social Services for more than 12 months.